Stay on target

Space colonization is becoming less a science-fiction fantasy and more a futuristic possibility.

During a meeting of the National Space Council early this month, Vice President Mike Pence announced the administration’s renewed focus on the moon.

“We will return American astronauts to the moon, not only to leave behind footprints and flags, but to build the foundation we need to send Americans to Mars and beyond,” Pence said.

Luckily, a new study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, confirmed the presence of a potential human habitat on the lunar surface.

A large, open lava tube in the Marius Hills region could be used to protect astronauts from hazardous conditions.

Space suits alone aren’t enough to insulate from extreme temperature variation, radiation, and meteorite impacts; the moon’s lack of atmosphere or magnetic field leaves inhabitants exposed to the elements.

So, when next traveling on Earth’s satellite, try seeking shelter in an intact lava tube. The natural tunnels occur when volcanic matter moves beneath the hardened surface of a lava flow, eventually draining to form a hollow shaft.

By analyzing radar data from Japan’s second lunar orbiter, SELENE (Selenological and Engineer Explorer), JAXA found several distinctive echo patterns near the Marius Hills Skylight, suggesting there may be more than one conduit.

“It’s important to know where and how big lunar lava tubes are if we’re ever going to construct a lunar base,” Junichi Haruyama, a senior researcher at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, said in a statement.

“But knowing these things is also important for basic science,” he added. “We might get new types of rock samples, heat flow data and lunar quake observation data.”

SELENE orbited the moon for 20 months in 2007 and ’08, but was not designed to detect lava tubes; it never flew close enough to the surface to capture necessary information.

“They [JAXA] knew about the skylight in the Marius Hills, but they didn’t have any idea how far that underground cavity might have gone,” Jay Melosh, a GRAIL co-investigator and professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Purdue, said.

“Our group … used the gravity data over the area to infer that the opening was part of a larger system,” he continued. “By using this complimentary technique of radar, they were able to figure out how deep and high the cavities are.”

Several kilometers long and at least one kilometer high and wide, according to the University—spacious enough to house one of the United States’ largest cities.